Eugene,
Most interesting and thank you for the reference. Many of the Christian Right
believe that principle of separation of church and state didn't apply to the
states until Everson v. Bd. of Educ. (1947). It's too bad that the Zorach Court
didn't get the memo.
Freedom From Religion
Vance,
I'm not sure that I understand your comment on Originalism.
The principle of separation of church and state is a bona fide original intent
view of the Establishment Clause, notwithstanding David Barton's revisonist book
Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, Religion, 3rd.,
What I think Mr. Ritter is missing is that the WV AG was not construing the
Federal Constitution, but the West Virginia constitution, whose religion
clause was a much more detailed paragraph than the First Amendment's. The AG
mentions the First Amendment, but seems to do so in a way that does
Vance-- Small point-- Aren't you confusing originalist with
textualist? I would have thought an originalist would be interested in the
history
behind the language as well as the language, while the textualist would
eschew the history to focus on the language.
Marci
Marci A. Hamilton
[mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Vance R. Koven
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 8:11 AM
To: Law Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Interesting early W. Va. Att'y Gen. opinion on released time
programs
What I think Mr. Ritter is missing is that the WV AG was not construing
I agree that there is an element of both in it. I wanted to avoid suggesting
that Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito were really Deconstructionists--they
would undoubtedly find the prospect horrifying--but the concept of original
intent, at least to my somewhat dilettantish eyes in following the
What I find interesting is that the AG did absolutely no parsing of the
constitutional language, in which I couldn't find anything that spoke to
what released time is. He jumped immediately to the extra-statutory concept
of separation of State and Church without so much as a case citation to
